Press Release

 

TRIAD STAGE CONCLUDES ITS 2009-2010 SEASON WITH PRESTON LANE AND LAURELYN DOSSETT'S PROVIDENCE GAP

The World Premiere of an Appalachian Sage takes the stage June 6 – July 4, 2010

Also playing: a new children’s production, Koko Karate and the Kung Fu Kittens, and two late night one-act comedies by Christopher Durang, The Actor’s Nightmare and Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You, June 17 – July 3, 2010

(Greensboro, NC) —Triad Stage concludes its 2009-2010 Season ­– “A Season Together” – with the world premiere of an Appalachian Saga, Providence Gap by Preston Lane, with original music by Laurelyn Dossett. Some guys have all the luck. In the tradition of Brother Wolf, Beautiful Star and Bloody Blackbeard comes a new play blending magic, myth and music. Chance Presnell is lucky. Abandoned at birth, he is rescued by a stranger. He meets his wife by accident. And coincidence saves his only child. But luck can change. As war calls him to Europe and an old jealousy splits his family apart, fate twists and his fortunes change. From a farm in the Blue Ridge to a mill village in the Piedmont, from the trenches of World War I to the Mexican border, Chance must take his destiny into his own hands as he searches for a place where all that is lost can once again be found. The production contains adult language and themes. Providence Gap runs June 6 through July 4, 2010. Opening Night is Friday, June 11. The production is part of THTR 232, Triad Stage and the University of North Carolina Greensboro Department of Theatre’s annual summer theater festival.

Providence Gap is the latest in a series of successful collaborations between Triad Stage Artistic Director Preston Lane and singer/songwriter Laurelyn Dossett – each production reflecting the distinctive voice of the greater Appalachian/Piedmont region. According to Lane, “Our collaborations are part of Triad Stage’s commitment to crafting a new form of aggressively American theater, combining music and story rooted in the people and places of our region. Every aspect of this play is homegrown and authentically of this place. It stands in contrast to the ‘megaplex mentality’ of entertainment and offers audiences a chance to stop, to sit, to listen and to share in the very first time this story has ever been told.”

The play has been in development for two years, with Lane conducting an extensive exploration of the times (the 1890s through 1930s) and locations covered throughout the story. He traveled to small Appalachian mountain towns, toured the ruins of Piedmont textile mills and visited the Texas/Mexico border to get a truer sense of the culture and the people. Dossett spent time researching Appalachian music from the dawn of the 20th century, how it was combined with other forms of music, altered even more to play on high powered radio broadcasts and evolved into what is known today as early country western and Bluegrass music. An early version of the script, along with several of the songs, was performed as a staged reading in July 2009 in Boone, NC at An Appalachian Summer Festival. Lane and Dossett were encouraged by the positive audience response and moved forward with the production to ready it for a full presentation at the end of Triad Stage’s 2009-2010 Season.

The 15-member cast is a mix of professional actors and University of North Carolina Greensboro Acting students and includes: Michael Abbott, Jr., Nick Albrecht, TJ Austyn, Catherine Delaney, Mattew Delaney, Amy Feldmann, Izzy Goff, Ginny Myers Lee, Christine Morris, Matt Palmer, Anthony W. Scarsella, Cinny Strickland, Leah Turley, Katie Vohwinkle and Jeffery West. They are joined onstage by the Providence Gap Band: Laurelyn Dossett, Carl Jones and Scott Manring.

The creative team includes: Tony Award®-nominated scenic designer Alexander Dodge, costume designer Kelsey Hunt, lighting designer John Wolf and sound designer David E. Smith. The dramaturg is Drew Barker, the fight director is Jim Wren, the voice/dialect coach is Christine Morris and the movement coach is Denise Gabriel. Cindi Rush is the casting director and the stage manager is Eric Tysinger.

Providence Gap sees the return of a number of talents returning from previous Lane/Dossett productions: actors Abbott and Lee (Brother Wolf); Strickland (Beautiful Star); Austyn, Morris, West and Manring (Bloody Blackbeard); designers Hunt and Wolf (Brother Wolf, Beautiful Star and Bloody Blackbeard), Smith (Beautiful Star and Bloody Blackbeard) and Dodge (Bloody Blackbeard).  

Biographies for the cast and creative team, and more information on the production can be found online at www.triadstage.org.

The Music of Providence Gap CDs will be on sale for $10 during the run of the show in The Pyrle Theater lobby, or can be purchased by calling the Triad Stage Box Office at 336.272.0160.

Performance and special event information
Tickets for Preview performances of Providence Gap, on June 6, 8, 9 and 10 are all $16 each. From Opening Night, June 11, single ticket prices range from $10 to $42. Prices vary depending on the day of the week and seat location desired.

All performances are at Triad Stage at The Pyrle Theater, located at 232 South Elm Street in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina (between Market and Washington Streets).

Discount rates are available for groups of 10 or more. Group tickets can be purchased by calling Sherry Barr, Director of Audience Services at 336.274.0067 ext. 221 or emailing groupsales@triadstage.org.

Show times for Providence Gap are 7:30 pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings and 8:00 pm on Friday and Saturday evenings. Sunday matinees are at 2:00 pm. There are no matinee performances during previews. Pay-What-You-Can performances are Sunday, June 13, and Tuesday, June 15, at 7:30 pm. Wine Tasting Friday is June 18, prior to the evening’s 8:00 pm performance. A Sign-Interpreted performance is on Tuesday, June 22, at 7:30 pm, with services provided by the Greensboro Communication Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Technically Talking,a behind-the-scenes discussion with members of the design team is Tuesday, June 8, immediately following the 7:30 pm preview performance. The InSight Series, the free humanities program that brings a noted speaker to the Triad to discuss the world of the play and its subject matter, will be held on Sunday, June 13, immediately following the 2:00 pm matinee performance. The speaker is Dr. Katherine E. Ledford, program director and lecturer at the Center for Appalachian Studies at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. PostScript, a lively, open discussion with members of the cast, will be held on Thursday, June 17, immediately following the 7:30 pm performance.

At noon on Thursday, June 3, North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC will broadcast live its program, The State of Things, from Triad Stage’s UpStage Cabaret. Lane, Dossett and several cast members will join host Frank Statio on air for interviews and performances of songs and scenes from Providence Gap. Tickets are free, but must be reserved by calling the Triad Stage Box Office at 336.272.0160 in advance of the show. Seating is limited.

 

THTR 232: “A Crash Course in Entertainment!”
Providence Gap is the centerpiece of THTR 232, Triad Stage and UNCG Theatre’s collaborative summer theater festival. In addition to The MainStage run of Providence Gap, which includes participation by UNCG students and faculty both onstage and behind the scenes, UNCG Theatre will stage family-friendly daytime performances of Koko Karate and the Kung Fu Kittens in the Brown Building Theatre on the UNCG campus, and late night back-to-back performances of Christopher Durang’s one-act comedies Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and The Actor’s Nightmare in Triad Stage’s UpStage Cabaret.

Koko Karate and the Kung Fu Kittens is written by Joe Sturgeon and Jim Wren, co-creators of previous THTR 232 productions Uncle Ulysses and the Mythic Sword and Redbeard’s Revenge or The School for Pirates: A Child’s Musical Dream of Pirate Adventure. Join Koko, the kittens, and their cast of zany friends as they dazzle audiences of all ages with light hearted humor, innovative music and dancing as they discover the value of friendship! Koko Karate and the Kung Fu Kittens is appropriate for ages 4 and up. Performances are June 17, 18, 22 – 25 and June 29 – July 2 at 10:00 am and 1:00 pm with Saturday matinee performance June 19, 26 and July 3 at 1:00 pm. Tickets are $7 for adults; $6 for children, seniors and students; and $5 for groups of 10+.

There are laughs aplenty with THTR 232’s late night shows in The UpStage Cabaret, Durang’s outrageous Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and The Actor’s Nightmare. The companion one-acts begin as Sister Mary, a parochial nun in every sense of the word, attempts to lecture young Thomas while being visited by former students who describe the lasting psychological trauma she has inflicted upon them in this black comedy. The action continues as George the accountant wanders onstage by mistake and is informed that he must immediately replace a missing performer in a play that’s about to begin. Confused and unprepared, things go from bad to worse for him in this hysterical horror in which no actor ever hopes to find himself.
 
Performances of Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and The Actor’s Nightmare are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights, June 17 – July 3, after the curtain goes down on the evening performances of Providence Gap. These late night productions are appropriate for ages 18+. Tickets are $15. Seating is general admission.

 

About Triad Stage
Triad Stage is a professional not-for-profit regional theater company based in Greensboro’s downtown historic district. All Triad Stage productions are created in Greensboro using the best of local and national talent. Triad Stage gratefully acknowledges the support of its Season Sponsors: Mitre Agency, the North Carolina Arts Council and the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro. Providence Gap is produced with support from the National Endowment for the Arts and Our State magazine.

Triad Stage’s 2010-2011 Season, its tenth, begins in September with The Glass Menagerie, an American masterpiece by Tennessee Williams (September 5 – 26, 2010) and continues with Willy Russell’s English comedy, Educating Rita (October 17 – November 7, 2010); Cormac McCarthy’s modern drama, The Sunset Limited (February 13 – March 6, 2011); Robert Harling’s Southern treasure, Steel Magnolias (April 10 – May 1, 2011) and Preston Lane’s world premiere adaptation of Ludvig Holberg’s dress up farce, Masquerade (June 5 – 26, 2011). The season includes Lane’s adaptation of Charles Dickens’ holiday classic, A Christmas Carol (November 26 – December 24, 2010). Season Passes are on sale now. Single tickets go on sale August 2.

All Triad Stage productions feature the bold acting and breathtaking design that have been nationally recognized by The Wall Street Journal and haveearned the theater accolades including “One of the Best Regional Theatres in America”, New York’s Drama League; “Best Live Theater”, Go Triad/News & Record and The Rhinoceros Times; and “Professional Theater of the Year”, North Carolina Theatre Conference. 

To purchase tickets or for performance information on Providence Gap, call the Triad Stage Box Office at 336.272.0160 or toll-free at 866.579.TIXX (8499), or visit www.triadstage.org.